Piano action-frame.



5110mm; M4

Mattel/"013 S,

No. 871,894. PATENTED NOV. 26, 1907.

H J SANDLAS PIANO ACTION FRAME.

APPLICATION mun Jun 6,1906.

l vflmzooeo i m. 5 mm UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY J. SANDLAS, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO ERNEST .T. KNABE, JR., OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

PIANO ACTION-FRAME.

Patented Nov. 26, 1907.

Application filed June 6,1906. Serial No. 320.456.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY J. SANDLAS, a citizen of the United States, residin at Bal timore city and State of Marylandfhave invented certain. new and useful Improvements in Piano Action-Frames; and 1 do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact descriptioi'l of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to action-frames for autopneumatic pianos wherein the action-frame has in addition to the usual upper action-rail a lower horizontal rail composed of separate sections or pieces with intervening spaces between their adjacent ends, which. spaces are provided to accommodate the passage of groups or clusters of, trackerbar pipes runningthrough the lower part of the action and to allow the action-frame to be readily set down in place or lifted out without interference by or with said groups of tracker-bar pipes. It is understood that the upper action-rail supports the hammers and their actuating wippens, together with the usual associated devices, common to piano-actions, which are secured to said up per rail in the usual manner while the lower rail affords a support or is connected to or with the vertically-movable wippen-actuating rods or abstracts, as by means of guideways or openings in said lower rail in which said abstracts are slidably fitted, or by means of guide-links pivotally-connecting the abstracts with the rail, or by other suitable means. In the class or type of autopneun'iatic ii'istruments in which such actionframes are employed, the tracker-bar pipes usually extend in diverging groups or divisions from a tracker-bar located in front of the action, and said groups of pipes are carried in narrow compact clusters rearwardly and downwardly behind the keyboard and through the lower part of the action, passing through the widened spaces between ad jacent units or elements of the action where the intermediate action-brackets are mounted, and pass usually above the lower rail to which the abstracts are either directly or indirectly connected, so that the aforesaid breaks or spaces between adjacent sections of the lower rail are needed in order to allow the action to be mounted in or removed from the case'without disturbing the arrangement of the tracker-bar pipes.

The object of my invention is to provide a construction for action-frames of the character above noted whereby the adjacent spaced .or separated ends of adjacent sectlons of the lower rail are rigidly united by a single actionbracket that is furthermore adapted to arch the groups of tracker-bar pipes and accommodate the passage thereof through the lower part of the action; the purpose being to make the action-frame a rigid unitary structure, and eliminate a needless multiplicity of action brackets with more or less impracticable connecting devices for joining the sections of the lower rail without interference by or with the pipes.

The accompanying drawing, fornnng a part of this specification, is a perspective view of an action-frame having my invention embodied therein. 7

A designates the upper action-rail, for supporting the hammers, wippens, jacks, dampers, &c., of'the piano-action, none of which mechanism is shown. however. Said actionrail A is attached to the end-brackets B and intermediate brackets C. When the actionframe is set in the piano-case, said brackets are mounted on the keyboard bottom, or upon posts, standards or frames rising from said bottom and supporting the lower forward feet I) and c of said brackets; while the upper ends 5 and c of the brackets are attached to the back frame of the instrument by means of the usual headed screws or buttons.- The said brackets B and C have rearward depending legs and 0 to the feet of which is attached the lower rail D, said lower rail being thus so disposed as to extend longitudinally behind the keyboard bottom when the action-frame is mounted in the piano-case. Said rail D is shown comprising three separate sections, whose contiguous or adjacent ends are spaced apart so as to allow the rail D, as the action-frame is set down in place or lifted out from the case, to pass up and down over or beside the two narrow groups or clusters of tracker-bar pipes, which in the autopneumatic instrument referred to branch out from the tracker-bar and extend rearwardly behind the keyboard and through the lower part of the action, and are thencecarried and distributed to the series of pneumatics located below the keyboard. The said depending legs 0 of the intermediate brackets C are formed as yokes or forks, which arch the,

Wippen-actuating rods by any suitable means, said rail,being shown provided with a series of transverse slots constituting guideways for the feet of the abstracts; but the particular mode of utilization of the rail for holding or guiding the abstracts is immaterial to the present invention, which pertains only to the structure of the action-frame and brackets per see.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. An action-frame for autopneumatic pianos having tracker-bar pipes arranged in clusters or bunches passlng through the lower part of the action, said action-frame comprlslng an upper ra1l and lower ra1l with connected brackets adapted for mounting in the piano-case, the lower rail comprising separate sections having their adjacent ends spaced apart, and the intermediate actionbrackets having their lower portions formed asforks which arch the spaces between adj acent sections of the lower rail and have the feet of the legs of said forks attached to said adjacent ends of said rail sections, thus making a rigid unitary frame structure having the ends of adjacent lower rail sections united. by single brackets adapted for strad: 1

dling the groups of tracker-bar pipes when the action-frame is mounted in the case of the instrument.

2. In an action-frame of the character described, the combination with the upper and lower rails for supporting different parts of the action, said lower rail comprising separate sections having adjacent ends spaced apart, of unitary action-brackets constructed and adapted for mounting in a piano-case and attached to said upper rail and having depending forks or yokes arching or straddling the spaces between adjacent sections of the lower rail and having the feet or legs of said forks attached to the adjacent ends of said lower rails or sections.

3. An action-bracket for action-frames of the character described made as a unitary structure in one general plane, having a rear upper supporting point and a lower front supporting point adapting said bracket to be mounted in a piano-case, and having below said lower front supporting oint a depending yoke or fork the plane 0 which is transverse of the plane of the bracket, the legs of said yoke or fork having feet adapted for attachment of rail-sections thereto.

4. The action-bracket C having supporting lugs c and c and lying mainly in the plane of said lugs and having its lower end formed as a fork the plane of which is at right-angles to the plane of the bracket, substantially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY J. SANDLAS.

Witnesses:

HERMAN E. AHRnNs, CHARLES R. Bon'rrenn. 

